{"id":62,"date":"2015-01-18T17:56:03","date_gmt":"2015-01-18T17:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/?p=62"},"modified":"2015-01-18T21:35:20","modified_gmt":"2015-01-18T21:35:20","slug":"the-black-paternoster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/2015\/01\/18\/the-black-paternoster\/","title":{"rendered":"The Black Paternoster"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was looking at children\u2019s prayers for bedtime, and came across something very interesting. \u00a0One of the common prayers that has made it into compendiums of nursery rhymes and children\u2019s prayers is the \u201cFour Corners\u201d prayer. \u00a0A common form of this prayer goes something like this:<\/p>\n

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,
\nBless the bed that I lie on. Four corners to my bed,
\nFour angels round my head;
\nOne to watch and one to pray
\nAnd two to bear my soul away.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The rhyme dates back to at least the 1600s in Britain, and is likely much older. \u00a0A German version dates to medieval times. \u00a0The first English text\u00a0is found\u00a0in a treatise on witchcraft, where the verse\u00a0is mentioned in a negative context.<\/p>\n
$\"image\"$ <\/p>\n
There were several\u00a0\u201cpaternosters\u201d (derived from Latin for \u201cour father\u201d), which were associated with colors, perhaps initially associated with colored prayer beads. \u00a0These poems are thought to be corruptions of prayers that became used as magic charms. \u00a0The \u201cwhite Paternoster\u201d (a version of which is found in Chaucer\u2019s Miller\u2019s Tale<\/em> of 1387) was used for morning. \u00a0The \u201cblack paternoster\u201d was used at bedtime. \u00a0A \u201cgreen paternoster\u201d was earlier condemned as blasphemous by the Bishop of Lincolon, Robert Grosseteste, 1175\u20131253.<\/p>\n
Somehow, the \u201cblack paternoster\u201d escaped the anti-witchcraft and anti-catholic sentiments of the 17th century to become a favorite children\u2019s rhyme in England, esp in the 20th century. \u00a0Perhaps this may be credited to Anglican priest, scholar and hymn-writer, Sabine Baring-Gould, 1834-1924.<\/p>\n
$\"Sabine_Baring-Gould,_age_35\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n
He published it as part of a collection of folksongs called Songs of the West<\/em>, first published in 1891 (This book is now freely available in the public domain:\u00a0https:\/\/archive.org\/stream\/imslp-and-ballads-of-the-west-baring-gould-sabine\/SIBLEY1802.20102.74b4-39087012501252score_djvu.txt<\/a>)<\/p>\n
The poem has been set to music by the composer Gustav Holst, 1874-1934 (of \u201cthe Planets\u201d fame). \u00a0Here is a snippet of a recording by the Holst Singers, under Stephen Layton.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Holst-Matthew-Mark-Luke-and-John.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/p>\n
The full version\u00a0is available for sale, by\u00a0Hyperion records,\u00a0 http:\/\/www.hyperion-records.co.uk\/tw.asp?w=W1077<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Sources: Images are from Wikipedia. \u00a0The lovely painting is \u201cFour corners to my bed\u201d by Isobel Lilian Gloag (1868-1917))<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/body><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was looking at children\u2019s prayers for bedtime, and came across something very interesting. \u00a0One of the common prayers that has made it into compendiums of nursery rhymes and children\u2019s prayers is the \u201cFour Corners\u201d prayer. \u00a0A common form of this prayer goes something like this: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Bless the bed that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,31],"tags":[43,37,41,38,36,39,35,33,42,45,34,40,44],"class_list":["post-62","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-prayers","tag-a-candle-in-the-dark","tag-chaucer","tag-folksongs","tag-four-corners","tag-history","tag-holst","tag-medieval","tag-paternoster","tag-prayer","tag-robert-grosseteste","tag-sabine-baring-gould","tag-songs-of-the-west","tag-thomas-ady"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions\/74"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}